Winter Gas Safety for Landlords: Beat the Breakdown Calls

Winter is when a rental boiler fault turns from an inconvenience into a problem with deadlines attached. The calls tend to be the same every year: low pressure, a frozen condensate pipe, a boiler that was never serviced after the previous tenant left. With autumn a few weeks away, now is the time to get ahead of them.

When should landlords service boilers before winter?

Aim to have rental boilers serviced between late August and early October. By then the heating has usually been off for months, so any fault that has developed shows up on the service rather than on the first frosty morning. It also means engineers have more flexibility before the autumn rush.

Remember that the annual gas safety check (CP12) and a boiler service are different things. The check confirms the appliances are safe; the service cleans and maintains the boiler so it keeps running. Many landlords book both on the same visit to save time and a second access arrangement.

Under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, a gas safety check can be carried out up to two months before its due date while keeping the original anniversary. If your CP12 falls in November or December, that window often lets you pair it with an autumn service without losing a month of the certificate. Our CP12 checklist covers the rest of the paperwork.

What is a landlord's legal duty when the heating fails?

Under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, landlords of most residential tenancies in England must keep installations for space heating and heating water in repair and proper working order. Once you have been told about a fault, you are expected to fix it within a reasonable time.

The law does not set a fixed number of hours. What counts as reasonable depends on the circumstances, and a household with no heating in freezing weather, particularly with young children or elderly occupants, is treated very differently from a dripping tap. Local councils can also take action over excess cold under their housing standards powers. For the detail, the guidance on GOV.UK is the place to start.

In practice, the landlords who handle winter well are the ones who have already decided who they will call and have authorised their agent to act quickly.

What should a tenant guidance sheet include?

A single page, pinned near the boiler or sent at the start of each tenancy, answers most of the questions that otherwise become 7am phone calls. Keep it short and specific to the property:

• Boiler make and model, and where the manual is kept.
• Pressure: where the gauge is and the normal cold reading (usually around 1 to 1.5 bar). If you are happy for tenants to top it up, point them to the filling loop instructions in the boiler manual.
• Frozen condensate pipe: where it runs outside, and that it can be thawed with warm, never boiling, water.
• Reset: that they may press reset once, as the manual describes, and should report it if it locks out again.
• Stopcock and gas meter: where both are and how to turn them off.
• Never remove the boiler casing or let anyone who is not a Gas Safe registered engineer work on it.
• How to report a fault and who to contact out of hours.

Do rented homes need carbon monoxide alarms?

Yes. In England, the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (Amendment) Regulations 2022 require a CO alarm in any room of a rented home that has a fixed combustion appliance, such as a gas boiler or wood burner. Gas cookers are excluded. Landlords must repair or replace a faulty alarm once they are told about it.

Test alarms at the start of every tenancy and ask tenants to test them regularly, especially once the heating goes on for the season. Our article on carbon monoxide alarms and your boiler explains where they should be placed.

Who should tenants call in a winter emergency?

Tenants should know exactly who to ring for each type of problem, without having to search through old emails. A simple table on the guidance sheet works well:

Which rental properties are most at risk over winter?

Empty properties between tenancies are the biggest risk. With nobody there, a frozen pipe can go unnoticed for days. Leave the gas and electricity on, set the heating to a low background temperature or frost setting, and have someone check in during cold spells. Lag any pipework in lofts, garages and under-stairs cupboards against outside walls.

Older boilers with a history of faults, systems that lose pressure, and condensate pipes running long distances along outside walls are the other common trouble spots. A pre-winter service is the time to deal with them.

Booking landlord boiler services in Stoke-on-Trent

We carry out services and landlord gas safety certificates across Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, south Cheshire and Derbyshire, and can combine both on one visit. A standard boiler service in Stoke-on-Trent is £90 including VAT. To arrange visits for one property or several, call 07896 677083.